


Don't Follow in His Footsteps

by Insomniac_with_dreams



Series: The Google Docs Dump Fanfics [5]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Hurt Shiro (Voltron), I was always thinking about it, M/M, That night in the Shack, Tired Keith (Voltron), blue lion - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-01
Updated: 2020-02-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 15:07:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22489159
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Insomniac_with_dreams/pseuds/Insomniac_with_dreams
Relationships: Keith/Lance (Voltron)
Series: The Google Docs Dump Fanfics [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1609384
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	Don't Follow in His Footsteps

_“Don’t follow in his footsteps.”_ The words of the commander rang through Lance’s head as he stared up at the cracked ceiling of Keith’s shack. Pidge and Hunk lay sprawled on the floor next to him and Takashi Shirogane slept on the couch above them. Keith was nowhere to be seen. He had fed them dinner, physically feeding Shiro before laying sleeping arrangements and scrounging for extra blankets. Lance had ended up blankets less and began to complain. He expected Keith to say something snarky and tell him to lump it instead he had looked at Lance with tired eyes and walked over to a tiny closet by the door. He pulled out a large jacket and gave it to Lance murmuring something that sounding like an apology. Lance had taken the heavy jacket feeling slightly bewildered before saying a quiet thank you. After that Keith had disappeared, and Lance was currently on the floor wrapped in a coat that smelled like smoke and cologne chasing the tail ends of sleep.

Finally after an hour of the cold floor pressing into his back Lance sat up. He looked around the small space his eyes lingering on the sheet covered wall. He couldn’t help but wonder what was under it. He continued looking around, there were signs of distress everywhere you looked. Knife holes in the walls, torn papers shoved haphazardly in a waste basket along with two open but completely full bottles of Tequila. Lance silently stood and tiptoed towards the front door. The floor creaked under his light steps making Lance flinch and freeze as he heard Hunk roll over. He breathed a sigh of relief and continued on his path to the door.

It was cracked and Lance could see Keith curled in a chair, eyes turned to the sky. He looked ghostly in the pale starlight, washed out. His black hair hung loose and tangled around his shoulders, and he looked so small curled up and tucked into himself. A coyote cried into the night another answered until distant whines filled the air. A cool gentle breeze brushed the leaves of the large tree in the backyard making them sing a quiet song. It was quiet in the most whole way imaginable. The desert seemed to be alive, it seemed to breath and sigh, and Keith fit it so well.

“Why did you bring him back to me, when you took him for so long? What are you trying to tell me?” Lance flinched at Keith’s whisper of a voice fearing he’d been found out, but no it seemed Keith was talking to the stars. His voice didn’t carry far before it was swallowed by the desert.

“I can feel you even stronger. What or who are you? Why are you calling me? I don’t understand.” Keith shrunk in on himself more eyes falling from the stars to the worn boards of the porch. “ I’m nobody don’t you see? I have nobody I’m used and broken, why are you pulling me to you? I know you are powerful I feel it, I know it.” Keith was quiet and Lance had to focus on calming his breathing so Keith wouldn’t hear him. This was a side of Keith Kogane Lance had never seen. The person in the chair was small and tired and lost. Lance waited to see if Keith would say anything else before trying to casually step back into the house and pretend he hadn’t just see what he had, but as usual the universe decided to do him over and he stepped back into one of the stacks of boxes. Down they fell and Lance watched stupidly as the hit the floor with a bang contents spilling onto the floor. 

Keith shot up a knife whipped from behind his back, he pushed open the door and Lance froze. They stared at each other for a few tense seconds before Keith’s eyes fell to the mess on Christmas decorations on the floor. LAnce would’ve apologized but he wasn’t sure if his voice would work. Keith pshed past him sheathing the knife and began to pick up the decorations. Lance stood frozen for a few seconds before dropping down next to him to help. He watched as Keith picked up a broken little cowboy ornament and placed it more gently into the box. Lance could have sworn he saw tears in his eyes. Lance felt guilt chew at his heart,

“ I’m sorry I knocked it over.” Lance whispered his voice barely there, not willing to look up at Keith's eyes. Keith made a small noise in the back of his throat and closed the box. 

“ It's fine.” His voice was quiet and somber melting into the soft quiet of the house. They both rose and Keith put the box back on it’s pile.

Lance bit his lip, watching quietly as Keith arranged them as quietly as he could. The pile was going to become no less stable, and he sighed in soft resignation.

“ Who were you talking to?” Lance asked. Keith flinched and peered at Lance from under his bangs, and Lance got the impression that Keith might hit him. Instead he looked out the open door past the porch and into the living silent night.

“ I don’t know. It’s hard to explain, especially to another living human.” Then Keith was turning fully to him, bangshifting from his eyes as he looked up,

“ I didn’t wake you did I?” Lance felt his throat close and his tongue become heavy and dry in his mouth. Keith’s earnest vulnerable eyes were like a black hole, sucking Lance in with an unforgiving grip.

“ No,” His voice was rough and he swallowed to alleviate the dry drag, “ No I think the hard floor did that. Did _you_ even _try_ to sleep?” 

Keith shook his head, gaze sliding from Lance to the other three people sleeping in his living room. His brows pinched as he watched the rise and fall of Shirogane’s chest, and Lance couldn’t help but wonder what Shiro was to him.

“ There wasn’t room, and I don’t think I’d be able to sleep anyway.” Lance had figured as much.

“ Well maybe I can keep you company. I don’t foresee myself being able to go back to sleep.” Keith pressed his lips together, fingers twitching. He seemed to weigh the pros and cons of letting Lance join him in his musings on the porch. His jaw clenched then relaxed,before he nodded stiffly.

The desert air hit Lance like a cool glass of water after a long hot summer day. It cleansed the stifling sad feeling that was kept prisoner in the walls of the shack. Lance breathed it in, marveling at the night sky in all her glowing beauty. The desert felt different then it had when Lance had only been watching Keith. It had seemed alive, as if it itself was keeping Keith company, but now it seemed to hold its breath, almost wary of the newcomer.

Keith motioned to the chair he had previously occupied, Lance sat down and Keith pulled himself up into the railing of the porch. It groaned in protest but Keith didn’t seemed concerned.

“ Do you really not know who I am?” Lance found himself breaking the silence. Listening to the desert claim his voice. Keith shook his head, eyes burning holes into the cosmos.

“ No. I didn’t lie. I do remember a ‘Lance’ from the cargo pilot class, but I don’t _know_ who you are.”

The honesty was startling to Lance. For some reason he thought that Keith would or was lying.

“ I remember you.” Keith’s face contorted into a strange parody before it fell again.

“ I don’t know why, there’s not much to worth remembering.” Lance made a face at that.

“ What are you talking about?” It came out harsher than intended and suddenly those eyes were back on him in full force. Lance continued before Keith could open his mouth.

“ I remember your top scores, I remember that you sat alone at lunch and that I was too much of a coward to go and talk to you. I remember the fights you got into because you were so stubborn about things you care about.” Lance could go one but stopped himself before he began to describe how his heart flipped every time he saw Keith fly or sit in the common room hunched over a book. Or how Lance wanted to run his hands through those raven locks.

Keith was staring at him, lips parted, left shining in the starlight as he ran his tongue over them.

“ You make me feel horrible.” Lance frowned, “ I don’t remember anything about you and here you are talking about me as if I’m…” He trails off. 

“ As if you’re what?” Keith dropped his eyes.

“ More. More than people think.” He looked back up a small smile on his lips his eyes looking lighter. A coyote called into the night, another returned it’s call. Lance wanted to reach for him, hold him, feel his hair, kiss those lips.

“ That's because you are Keith.” 

Keith slid off the rail and walked towards Lance. The world seemed to zero in on them as Keith reached out to him.

“ I want to get to know you Lance.” Lance clasped to offered hand, “ Will you let me?” Lance nodded, knowing words would fail him. 

“ _Don’t follow in his footsteps.”_ But here under the desert sky with a journey ahead of them; Lance swore that was exactly what he planned to do.


End file.
